Figures from the study revealed that a third of 16 to 19-year-olds struggle with the basics - three times as many as in countries including Finland, Japan, Korea and the Netherlands.

Furthermore 7 per cent of 20 to 34-year-old graduates in England have numeracy skills below Level 2 - meaning that they struggle to estimate how much petrol is left in a tank from looking at the gauge.

The study claimed that graduates who lacked these basic skills were "undermining" English degrees, and that students should be barred from university if they have poor standards of literacy and numeracy.

Mike Ellicock, chief executive of the charity, National Numeracy said: There is a big gap between the maths young people learn at school – in effect complex maths in simple situations – and the maths all of us need every day – simple maths in complex real-life situations. We need a new approach to bridge that gap and to help adults build the skills they never truly learnt at school.”

But how do your maths skills compare? National Numeracy have devised a short test to find out.